Joe Biden's appeal on Thursday to the left at the liberal Netroots Nation conference went unmentioned by the networks. The fact that the Vice President got heckled by the far-left was also ignored. While talking to the assembled progressives, Biden was interrupted by chants of "Stop deporting our families! Stop deporting our families!" [See video below.]
Biden applauded the outburst and immediately responded, "I respect your view and I share your view." Speaking of illegal immigrants, he lectured, "We should clap for those young people...Can you imagine the pain, the anxiety of coming home every day, wondering if your mother or father will still be there?"
The best ABC could do is to offer an online article about what Netroot Nation liberals "really" want as Obama's presidency winds down.
As Biden began his speech, he somehow imagined media coverage of his liberal agenda: "As you spoke, I could almost hear the press salivating. Will Joe be Joe today? I make no apologies whatsoever. None."
Media outlets have covered past Conservative Political Action Conferences with a skeptical, worried tone. On February 22, 2010, ABC's John Hendren derided CPAC attendees as representing the right and the "far right."
For a February 19, 2010 story, reporter Claire Shipman (Mrs. Jay Carney) worried about the "Republican-edgy" tone of CPAC and the GOP's "big tent problem."
On March 6, 2014, MSNBC's Chris Matthews mocked CPAC as just like the bar scene in Star Wars.
Journalists haven't worried about the "far left" tone of Netroots Nation. It's so uncontroversial, they haven't covered it at all.
A transcript of Joe Biden being interrupted by protesters on July 17 can be found below:
JOE BIDEN: I respect your view and I share your view, but let me take these issues one at a – [Biden starts applauding.] We should clap for those young people, because if you were a member of a family – We should clap for them. Can you imagine – Can you imagine the pain, the anxiety of coming home every day, wondering if your mother or father will still be there? Can you imagine – Can you imagine what it must feel like? Ladies and gentlemen, there's so much unfinished business, but I believe in a nation that understands the most precious right Americans protest is the unfettered access to the ballot box.
